50 years of investing in children around the world

In 1965, missionary Dr. Alton Gould started the first International Child Care Ministries-sponsored school in Hong Kong. That first school met on a rooftop of a Hong Kong housing project. After visiting India and Africa, Dr. Gould felt a burden to expand to other countries. Step by step, ICCM's effort to support Free Methodists in their international outreach to children and families grew to a global ministry.

Ann VanValin led ICCM through years of remarkable growth from 1990 to 2008. Child sponsorship tripled. Many schools in Haiti and several children's hostels in India were initiated.

Linda Adams was appointed Director of ICCM in 2008. New child sponsorship opportunities opened in Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Togo.

Today, ICCM is changing thousands of lives in 30 countries. That first school in Hong Kong is no longer there, but the children who first attended that school are now able to sponsor children in other countries.

More than 300 children are now supported by sponsors in Hong Kong. Recently, the daughter of a man who attended a Hong Kong ICCM school began to sponsor a child in India. So, it comes full circle. Thanks be to God!